Retailing Rivals Try To Size Up The Supermall -- Checking Out The Competition

Shoppers aren't the only ones going shoulder to shoulder in the inaugural crush at the SuperMall of the Great Northwest.

Managers and marketing directors of other Western Washington malls and discount shopping centers are trekking to Auburn to scope out the new discount mall, which opened last Friday.

For Lynn Castle, that meant three trips in the SuperMall's first four days. But she didn't have far to go. Castle is assistant manager of SeaTac Mall in Federal Way, just five miles away and the closest mall to the new competition.

"They obviously had wonderful traffic," said Castle, describing the hordes circulating through more than 100 stores in the SuperMall's race-track style concourses. "But I was pleased to see our traffic was as strong as the week before."

With back-to-school shopping in full swing, might it have been even stronger? That question has crossed Castle's mind. She, like her counterparts at other regional shopping centers, are talking strategy, strengthening marketing programs and wondering how big a shadow the SuperMall will cast on Puget Sound-area malls and factory-outlet centers.

It already has brought major change to one South King County center, the off-price Pavilion Mall near Southcenter in Tukwila, which lost The Nordstrom Rack and The Dress Barn to the SuperMall.

Though Auburn's new 1.2 million-square-foot shopping center may eventually have 160 stores, it is smaller than Southcenter and

Bellevue Square. But it is considered one of the six major discount "megamalls" in the country - malls that are larger than 1 million square feet, with a mix of entertainment, off-price retailers and factory-outlet stores, some new to the area.

Off-price retailers, such as Marshalls and Burlington Coat Factory, sell items at 20 percent to 70 percent below department-store prices. They generally buy name-brand items from manufacturers and wholesalers late in the season, pay cash and shun expensive retail space. Factory outlets, such as Mikasa china and Carter's childrenswear, are manufacturer-owned stores that sell directly to the public, with discounts on out-of-season items.

This mix is what distinguishes discount malls from conventional malls and draws people from a broader market reach, said Chris Hundley, executive editor of Value Retail News, a Florida trade journal that covers the off-price and outlet industry.

A typical megamall shopper visits only two or three times a year, but spends more time and money there than does a shopper at a traditional mall.

The SuperMall attracted 500,000 visitors last weekend, and at least that many are expected this Labor Day weekend, marketing director Lynn Beck said. Most will likely be local shoppers - people living within a 40-mile radius and the main target of the advertising blitz that heralded the mall's arrival.

But regional shoppers - those living up to 100 miles away - are the focus of the next wave of marketing. Mall officials expect regional customers will make up about 30 percent of mall shoppers.

Some say the mall will actually help competing shopping centers by attracting more people to the area. Not even Beck, however, disputes that the SuperMall has affected other retail centers.

A dozen miles to the north, the Pavilion Mall, one-sixth the size of the SuperMall, is awaiting the October arrival of a new tenant to fill the cavernous space left vacant when the Rack closed in July. The Pavilion, which opened in 1982, was the area's first off-price mall.

Nordstrom's off-price store at the SuperMall is, at 45,000 square feet, the largest Rack outlet in the state.

"It didn't make sense to operate two locations so close together," said Paula Stanley, Nordstrom public-affairs coordinator. The Auburn mall was a chance to better serve customers to the south and put new merchandising and layout concepts into practice, she said.

Another Pavilion tenant, The Dress Barn, left Tukwila for Auburn. But two other off-price retailers - Marshalls and Burlington Coat Factory - say they have no plans to leave, though they just opened stores at the SuperMall.

With customer traffic down at the Pavilion, merchants say they are anxious for the Oct. 27 arrival of Home Express. The California home-furnishings chain has leased nearly 50,000 square feet of space, some 10,000 square feet more than the departed Rack, said Doug Bailey of Trammel Crow Co., the Pavilion's property manager.

Although the SuperMall has brought major change to the Pavilion's mix of stores, Bailey doubts his shoppers will also head for Auburn. The SuperMall, off Highways 167 and 18, he said, is not as convenient as Southcenter, near interstates 5 and 405.

An interstate location has always been a strong marketing tool for the region's three factory-outlet shopping centers in Centralia, North Bend and Burlington, which get much of their business from travelers. Michael Roberts, marketing director of the Factory Outlet Center in Centralia, said the new mall may help centers such as his by promoting factory-outlet shopping. But he doesn't expect Auburn to pick off outlet shoppers who might have passed his way.